From the Principal

High Talent Congratulations to Yale Wong (SHS 2011) who was short listed for the
prestigious Malcolm Chaikin Foundation Scholarship at UNSW. Well done to Shaun Fletcher (Year 11)
who won an award for Japanese Continuers Preliminary at the Open High School. Thank you to Angie
Ward and the 15D basketball team for their great act of sportsmanship by deliberately fielding a
player short to match the Riverview team numbers in the last quarter of the Saturday match. An
injury and a player fouled out left Riverview short. The Riverview coach writes
“…the efforts of the High players to provide an excellent opposition who played the
game capably and confidently with good confidence and skill at the base of it all, is to be
admired and praised…The gesture was appreciated and noted.” Congratulations to our
senior chess team who were invited to compete in the National Championships on the strength of
their win in the School Senior Chess competition. Dawen Shi, Edward Naoumov, Jonathon Ren, Eric
Zhu and Daniel Zhang, will represent High in this most prestigious competition.

House Shield Competition In 2012 we will be promoting the House Shield Competition.
We have a handsome new House Shield to compete for. Our new House captains - Adam Booth (Eedy),
David Andrews (Fairland), Jim Koukouras (McKay), Jerry Zhou (Ruby), Jesse Moffat (Saxby) and
Scott Renzenbrink (Torrington) – will lead the push for more participation for House
competition and build its profile in the school. The competition will comprise points for:
swimming, cross country, athletics, basketball, rowing, touch rugby, team cross country / Jaggar
Gift, debating, theatre sports and volleyball. Points will be allocated for Year performance or
categories (Junior / Senior). The winning House will undoubtedly be made up of the best
all-rounders in the school.

Reports All boys in Years 7-9 should have picked up their reports after discussions
with the Principal. Due to a moderation computational error, ninety Year 8 reports were adjusted
and reprinted. Some boys who collected reports will be contacted to pick up a replacement. Please
ask your son for his report or to book a time to collect it.

Vision Statement and Strategic Plan The revised Vision Statement 2012-14 has been
completed and posted on the school website. I am open to comments or suggestions from school
community members. The strategic Plan is evolving. An outline of general directions for the
school was discussed with staff in Term 3 and some initiatives agreed upon since then. The
Executive team have been asked to contribute to strategies and activities to implement our three
year goal to enhance personal attainment of gifted boys. Given the freedom of the absence of BoS
Year 10 examinations in 2012, teachers and students can experiment much more in stage 5 and
design programs to meet individual student needs. Exciting developments in assessment strategies
and products are allowing students to show what they know and can do in a greater variety of
ways. Teachers are re-writing programs to accommodate this trend.

Student Award Scheme The Scheme has closed for this year and points will now be
allocated finally and totalled to establish who has become entitled to which level of award.
Program managers and activities coordinators have sent through details of eligible students to Mr
Dowdell. Boys (and parents) have been able to check that information has been entered via the
Student (and Parent) Portal.Dr K A Jaggar

SRC Report November 2011

The SRC started 2011 with high ambitions and a new perspective on how to tackle school issues,
learning from the experiences of 2010. Collectively, the SRC decided that we would aim for
realistic goals for the 2011 year, meaning that we were not reaching for extravagant ideas for
the school which were out of our budget, unrealistic, etc. The main points which the council
centred on this year were ventilation in the school gymnasium (rooms 902 and 903), recycling and
bins, and SRC awareness. We also took care of some school events such as Trivia Night and the
Talent Quest, as well as handling many ideas and requests suggested by students of this school.

A small committee of SRC members was assigned for each of the three main issues that we targeted
in 2011. The ventilation in the change-rooms proved to be a huge success, and there is now an
active ventilation system running perfectly in both 902 and 903. The issue with contaminated bins
and littering in the school grounds has been minimised through our awareness campaign, as well as
the introduction of new bins with improved lids, all of which are now more conveniently and
logically positioned around the school. Please use the bins with the yellow lids for all
recyclable material (NO FOOD REMAINS!) I also believe that the school is much more aware of the
presence of the SRC, and its involvement in school life. We are the student voice elected by the
students, hence, please speak to SRC members if you have an issue and want it solved!

In conclusion, I believe 2011 has been a huge success for the SRC. Congratulations to all the
members of the council for an outstanding year and the effort produced by everyone. We would all
like to thank Mr Cipolla for helping to run everything smoothly, giving us so much advice and
making sure everything worked out correctly. Well done on a great year!By Adilmorad Nadir 8R

Die Deutsche Frage Im Dezember

So far no one has come up with the right answer. Therefore another clue is obviously de
rigueur:
Deutschland: 129 Liter
Australien: 256 Liter
Aber was? Again the answer can be found if you walk around with keen eyes! Viel Glück!Frau St Leon

Sport Donations

GPS sports competition is very demanding on people and resources. At High we have ongoing needs
for facilities development, equipment and development through expert coaching. If you would like
to help through a tax deductible donation for a particular sport, the appropriate form can be
posted to you by calling 9361 6910. Alternatively, you can go to our website www.sydneyboyshigh.com click on Sport/Sports Donations to
download either Development Donation Form or Equipment and Facility Donation Form.

Peer Mediation at SBHS

Hey got a problem? Get peer mediated! Peer mediation is a program run by a select group of Year
11 students which seeks to solve conflict between students without getting teachers involved. The
program seeks to help the students resolve their issues while under the guidance of the Year 11
students. The program is confidential and stays between the peer mediators (Year 11 students) and
the students who have a problem with each other.

How it works

When two students have a disagreement they are to email the following address:
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requesting a Peer Mediation session. From this point Ms Barr will receive the request and will
appoint two Peer Mediators to accompany the disputers in a closed off room, whereby the two
students will eventually resolve their problem and sign an agreement to not create more problems
with each other.

Remember. The email address is:
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Adam Booth & Thomas Zhang

From the Junior Library

Library Blogs

Lots of boys and their teachers have been able to use the post exam period to take the
opportunity to read and review a book new to the Junior Library. Thanks to the intrepid English
staff for consenting to work along with the New Resource Blog during their wide reading periods.
Thanks also to the Values Education teachers who are Blogging as part of their Literacy Circles
Unit. Most of all thanks to the boys who have written such lovely Blogs to recommend books to one
another.

This Blog is from Kai Matsumoto Year 7 and was written today.

"Max by well-known screen writer and author, James Patterson, is science fiction, intended
to entertain a teen audience and explores the problems associated with genetic experimentation

"A gang of teenagers who were genetically altered with avian DNA, combined with strange powers
and huge wings, are being hunted down by robots, attackers and kidnappers. It is told from the
point of view of Max, their leader. She struggles to balance all her commitments, from her love
of her fellow bird-kid boyfriend Fang to the flock's desperation to fit in with other people.
Max's mother is kidnapped and hidden away in a secret location, so Max and the flock enlist the
help of the US Navy in order to rescue her and find out the truth about her mysterious kidnapper,
Mr Chu. Where is Max's mother? What will happen?

"Max is a hilarious character, who is repeatedly in emotional turmoil. The skirmishes between
robots and bird children are very exciting, and it also warns the reader how dangerous genetic
mutation can be. The heart-warming family sense to the flock and its supporters give this book an
emotional touch. The first person narrative gives the reader an intricate insight into how Max
thinks, and the way she becomes easily angered or nervous.

This book is very interesting, and definitely kept me hooked, right to the finish. It showed me
just how crazy Max's life is, and her sense of humour and refusal to listen to adults gave me a
realistic sense that she is a teenager, which is something that I kept forgetting when she was
breaking apart robots and attacking kidnappers. I enjoyed this book very much, and I would
certainly recommend this book."

Cross-Curricular Initiative

QUALITY TEACHING AND LEARNING – JUNIOR LIBRARY As part of our shelf clean-up
at the end of this year our staff has put in new and improved subject added entries
(otherwise known as keyword or tags) on every single book we have in the collection. (We hope to
finish this by the end of the term)

If students want to see at a glance all the books/or other library resources like DVDs in the
Library collection which relate to their subject area they can type in “Geography”,
“HSIE” as well as narrower search terms, like “Australiana” or
“Coaching” or “Fitness”.

English students, in particular, should feel encouraged to search their Portal – Library
Enquiry – for critical works on Poets, Playwrights and Novelists and for Area of Study
terms like “Points of view” or “Journey”, “Australian
poetry”.

A work in progress also is for Junior library staff to put on the Library system all W
drive documentaries so that boys are aware of the thousands of valuable resources, which are
extremely useful as cross curriculum resources. (EG many Science resources would suit HSIE and
many English documentaries might also suit Indigenous Studies). At present the library staff has
entered roughly 60 Science resources and will continue with this project. Additional search terms
also have been put into our searchable database to assist staff and students to find the
resources we already have. Boys should note that they can watch these W drive documentaries
themselves at school on their laptops or Library PCs.

More resources are also being relocated to the Senior Library Collection. Senior boys
should also be encouraged to seek out Senior Curriculum Resources on the Senior Library shelves.
Seniors should regard the Library database as another database to think about searching for
curriculum related sources of information.

Senior and Junior Library resources can be found on ONE LIBRARY ENQUIRY DATABASE. Both Libraries
share the same computer system and work in close harmony for overdues and resource sharing. Boys
and staff are encouraged to regard the 2 Libraries as a single entity and search Library Enquiry
accordingly.Mrs Crothers
Librarian- Junior Library

What’s up in the McDonald Senior Library?

Reading and the library

The Senior Library has been promoting reading this year with the assistance of the LibraryVIP
program where students receive points each time they borrow and read books and magazines or view
DVDs and other resources held by the libraries. This brilliant program was invented by Tim Chan
our library prefect in 2011 who has just completed his HSC and will be sorely missed as he moves
from school to an exciting future in the world beyond school. We intend to continue this program
next year in both libraries.

Next Thursday we will be drawing the reader who has borrowed and read at least 10 books, DVDs or
magazines to win a $50 book voucher. This will be the final of two draws for this year.

Reading is vital to success in school and throughout life and a huge body of evidence and
research looking at this activity has indicated that those who read for pleasure do better across
the school curriculum. Reading develops the mind and the imagination, exposes us to new ideas,
inspires creativity and enables us to make decisions after reading alternative viewpoints or
information on an issue. Reading is essential to job success and enables a free society.

The benefits of reading a wide variety of literature including fiction, non-fiction and graphic
literature is understood by educators, and school libraries see this promotion and encouragement
of reading as central to their role in the school. So when you see your son enjoying reading
novels and devouring books for pleasure, see this as an essential and important educational
activity. The more he reads the more developed his language skills and brain skills will become.
Talk to your son about the books he is reading and discuss the ideas he is discovering while
exploring the amazing and infinite world of human thought expressed as literature and information
in text.

Our collection still represents a minute area of the world’s knowledge and literature
however resources are growing and have been specially selected to provide the best and most
appropriate for the Senior students progressing through to the HSC. Next year in 2012 the Senior
Library will grow again and our collection with it. In both libraries we will be doing our best
to create a dynamic and useful space to study, think and read and prepare to succeed in the HSC.

Donation thanks

A big thank you to Eric Ovadia and Fabienne Ovadia, his mum, for a donation of study guides which
will be put into the Senior Library collection for the use of other students. We appreciate
donations of useful, appropriate and up to date books in the Senior library collection very much
so if you have any resources which meet the above criteria please do bring them along for
consideration.

New resources

To view our latest additions, which include some of the latest study guides for Years 11 and 12
and general non-fiction please check out the school portal My Library/New Resources/ Senior
LibraryMs S Gordon
Teacher Librarian, McDonald Senior Library

From the Canteen

It’s that time of year again and we hope you will all understand that not all your usual
favourites will be available in canteen right through to the end, as we are running down stock in
preparation for the long summer break.

In order to avoid disappointment it is suggested that you put in a lunch order. A big thank you
to our wonderful volunteers last week. Apologies and thanks to Ming Lee who was omitted from last
week’s list.

THUR: Charles & Fabienne’s last day after 12 years volunteering. What a
milestone! You will both be greatly missed.

FRI: Trang Nguyen, Youfang (Susan) Zhang ThanksThe Canteen Team

2011 Literacy Circles Resources

NOW FOR GENERAL BORROWING – JUNIOR LIBRARY

This year a number of current series writer’s books were purchased for “Literacy
Circles”-a Junior Library and Values Education reading initiative. These books are now on
display in time for boys to borrow for the holidays. Now is the chance to borrow a series they
like. As the holidays are a great opportunity for the boys to hone their skills as readers both
Librarians would like to point out that holiday borrowing is encouraged at High. BOYS CAN ALWAYS
BORROW UP TO 10 BOOKS AT A TIME. SO PLEASE TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO STOCK UP WITH LOVELY READING
MATTER.

Good readers have all the vocabulary, grammar and spelling skills to be good writers – they
are HIGHLY LITERATE!Mrs Crothers
Junior Library

Music Notes

Marching Band

Marching Band rehearsals have commenced again on Friday mornings from 7:45-9am. ALL
members of the Concert Bands, please meet Lachlan Deacon in room 201 for rehearsal.

Music AGM

The Music Annual General Meeting will be held next Tuesday evening 6th December 2011 in the
Staff Common room at 6:30pm. We would like to invite all parents with sons in the Music
Performance Program to attend, some light refreshments will be provided.

Aspire to be a First or Second Grade player! It is within your reach!!

1st Grade Table

FIRSTS

Played

Won

Lost

For

Against

Points

Scots

7

7

0

542

357

14

High

7

6

1

556

390

13

Newington

7

4

3

461

343

11

St. Ignatius'

7

4

3

515

460

11

St. Joseph's

7

3

4

516

515

10

Shore

7

3

4

405

412

10

Grammar

7

1

6

372

477

8

Kings

7

0

7

232

645

7

This Saturday will be the biggest GPS match of the season and decide whether High has a
genuine chance to win the premiership. The top of the table clash against Scots is a must
win, so we need YOUR support. Please come and watch our first grade side and support them
during what will be a high quality game of basketball.

MR B HAYMAN’S TEAMS and PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
14As: A good effort against a very strong team. A run at the start of the second half got
High within 8 before Riverview's L Stenmark (6’4, best U14 player in the state) then turned
it on to push the game out of reach. The boys kept working hard and should have their heads high
as it was a great improvement on the last time these teams matched up. (Last time as 13As final
score was 11-74)

NICK FRANCE: Came out firing this week! Nick played his natural game and dropped 24 points
nearly getting the seconds a big win against second on the table Riverview.

National Championships

From December 4 to December 9, High's open team will travel to Bendigo to try and win back to
back titles in the Australian Schools Basketball Championship. The top teams from around
Australia will compete, making this a very tough competition. To follow High's campaign and view
results, fixtures and live scores, go to the site below and look up the "2011 Boys Australian
Schools Championship" division Link: http://www.basketball.net.au/index.php?id=415

~ Go High Basketball!
~ Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together!
~ Don’t forget to visit the NEW Sydney High Basketball Website!
~ Brought to you by the editor Chris Chiam
~ Thank you to Mr Hayman for all his contributions to basketball and information

High Family

The Bulletin Board for Sydney Boys High P & C

If you would like to have any parent community news or upcoming events included in High Society,
please contact Ian Sweeting P&C President
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Upcoming P&C Parking Events

Please find listed below this week’s P&C parking events. Parents are reminded of the
importance of supporting their sons’ co-curricular activities through these valuable
fund-raising activities. New parents are particularly welcome and no experience is necessary.
Parking is a great opportunity to meet with other parents and keep up to date with school life.
This week’s events have a distinctly musical flavour, so footie scarves are out and black
t-shirts are in!

Please make sure you check with your group’s parking co-ordinator to confirm the exact
start and finish times for particular events.

The Governors’ Centre (GCEE)

This weekend on Sunday December 4, members of the P&C will be speaking to parents in Year 7
about the GCEE project, the building fund, and the monthly giving programme. If you don’t
receive a call and would like someone to contact you regarding these important matters, please
email Ian Sweeting
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or Pam Jepson
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and we would be happy to arrange a
time to speak to you.

P&C Thank You Party

A reminder that this year’s P&C Thank You Party will be held in the Great Hall
on Monday 12 December at 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

If you haven’t already done so, please RSVP your attendance to Cathy Northey by Wednesday 7
December on 9361 6910 or email
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Housekeeping

A reminder also to P&C sub-committees who have yet to lodge their annual reports and season
review to please forward these as soon as possible.

Upcoming Meetings & Events

SBHS Rowing

St Joseph’s Regatta Results

For the first time, Joey’s hosted their GPS regatta at SIRC rather than the usual Iron
Cove. Despite the torrential rain, the early start, the distance to travel and the late finish,
all boys turned up to row with their crews. Well done to all rowers for being on time and in such
good spirits rigging, rowing and de-rigging ... in the rain, the mud and puddles.

Thank you –

to the parents for getting the boys organised for the day.

to Adrian Henning for his time and effort towing the boats to Penrith on the Friday,
supervising and helping all boys with the boat loading and rigging, and getting all the boats
back to the sheds safely after the regatta.

to Craig Phillis, and the committee, for setting up tents, food and drinks for the boys.

Congratulations to our two senior rowers who represented the school in the GPS Sculling trials
– Gianmarco De Nigris and Tim Montanaro.

Upcoming Events

Friday 2 Dec - Year 8 Quads Rowing Development Camp. An opportunity for intensive
rowing tuition and to experience camping overnight in the dormitory.

Saturday 3 Dec - Riverview Gold Cup at Lane Cove. High boys will row from the
school sheds to the regatta course, and all parents are invited to St Ignatius College to watch
the races.

Friday 9 Dec – Year 9 Quads Development Camp. An opportunity for intensive
rowing tuition and to experience camping overnight in the dormitory.

Saturday 10 Dec – SHS Shed Race/Family Regatta Day. This is our end of year
event at the High Sheds. All crews compete in the handicapped ‘Shed Race’ with the
finish line in front of our shed, followed by families and school community having a try at
rowing. A delicious barbecue breakfast is served for all rowers and families to enjoy under the
marquee by the river.

Contact Details –

If you would like to receive more information about what is happening at Sydney High Rowing
please email your details to –
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Rowing: Shed Race Family Open Day

The Rowing Committee extends an invitation to the Sydney High Rowing Community to come to the
annual

Shed Race and Family Day

Saturday 10th December 2011
from 9am to 11am

SHED RACE - All High crews row in the handicapped ‘shed race’ which gets under
way at 8.30am and finishes in front of the High sheds, so come along and watch the crews as they
race to the finish, approximately 9am.

FAMILY DAY – Following the shed race, the committee host a relaxed, informal
occasion for all families.

Enjoy a barbecue breakfast and barista coffee by the water at family friendly prices.

Try rowing, or simply sit and watch the action.

Explore the sheds and display of High Rowing history.

We hope to see all the current rowing families, as well as the 2010 new intake of students
enjoying our open day